Nehru and Persian/Arabic

[N. Ganesan]

On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, N. Ganesan wrote:

>   When I was at Inst. of Asian studies on a visit, people told
> me this that Persian, Arabic are classified as classical
> languages, but not Tamil.
>
> I have to check where in one of the Central govt.
> documents. This is shown to UN etc., to get funds.

N. S. Raja wrote:
*This is all too vague.  Get back to us
*when you can be more specific.  You and
*I are engineers, we should know how to
*be specific.

 Thanks for your advice. If you check my postings in Indology,
 usually my postings are with references and published
 sources.

 From the draft copy submitted to Govt. of India from
 Institute of Asian studies, Madras entitled as
 Tamil as a Classical language, the concluding line is:
 "In the list of classical languages, the Government of
 India has included Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian. It is
 only appropriate that the Government of India includes
 old Tamil (upto 6th century A.D.) in the list of Classical
 languages along with Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian and
 give due importance for the promotion of studies on
 this ancient language and culture in a wider national
 and international perspective."

 Because Tamil is classified by GOI as a modern Indian
 language (MIL) and a regional language, the growth in its
 reasearch avenues are held up by delays and lack of funds.

 The University Grants Commission allocates funds for
 research into Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian only.
 This may be a vestige from Nehru era. Now things
 can be amended to include Tamil as one of India's
 classical languages along with Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit.

 I have about 25 pages of the draft copy telling
 why Tamil is Classical.

 More later.

 Regards,
 N. Ganesan


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com